The Collection Quilt (Round 2!)

Posted on January 3, 2017 by thenotsodramaticlifeadmin / Posted in Classes, Finished Quilts, Quilting, Quilting Community / Leave a comment

Last year, I was thrilled to teach Carolyn Friedlander‘s Collection Quilt through a local quilt shop, Sew to Speak. The first version I made as a class sample is similar to the overall aesthetic that was used in the original design, so when I constructed a second version to use for demonstration purposes, I thought it would be fun to do something entirely different. This is my pink-loving-little-girl version!

My color palette this time around was mostly pinks and oranges with some red and violet and shots of green.

Some fussy cutting added a bit of whimsy to the overall aesthetic.

The backing is the same fun unicorn fabric that appears in the front in a different color way.

This quilt is the perfect way to learn needle turn appliqué, and I am excited to be teaching it again this year! Each month we will do a block that build on the skills covered in previous meetings. If you are interested in joining the class, please contact Sew to Speak in Worthington, Ohio. This technique opens up a whole new range of quilting designs!

Quilt Stats

Title: The Collection Quilt (Pattern by Carolyn Friedlander)

Size: 40.5″ x 51.5″

Techniques: Needle turn appliqué, machine piecing

Quilting: Computerized linear edge to edge pattern (my original design) done on an A-1 Elite Longarm

Fabric: Assorted quilt shop quality, 100% cotton fabrics

Batting: Hobbs 80/20

Thread: Applique and piecing done with neutral and coordinating Gutermann Mara 100, Quilted with 50wt cotton Aurifil

Binding: Striped bias binding, machine stitched to the front, hand finished on the back.

Felted Wool Needle Minding Mini

Posted on October 7, 2016 by thenotsodramaticlifeadmin / Posted in Finished Quilts, Quilting / 1 Comment

This very little mini came about for a very practical reason- I wanted a place to put machine needles when I needed a different style of needle, but wasn’t ready to dispose of the one I had been using. Wool is ideal to store needles in since it doesn’t dull them, so I thought this would be a fun place to experiment using this fiber.

A friend has a needle felting machine, so I brought some neutral colored wool roving with me to create the fabric for the off white stripe on this mini. It was so much fun to see a bunch of loose fibers transform before my eyes into 100% wool felt! The coral colored wool was a piece of fabric my mom donated from her stash, and I used decorative machine stitching to appliqué the needle felted wool in place.

The stitching was done entirely with my mechanical machine, so it is all carefully placed straight stitches to create the boxes and lettering. My most used machine needle sizes are 10, 12, and 14. The specialty needles I tend to use are ball point needles for knits (K) and a Microtex needles (M). A couple rows of decorative stitching and a dense zig zag around the edges finish the mini.

Title: Needle minding mini

Techniques: Machine needle felting

Quilting: Machine quilted using straight and decorative stitches

Fabric: Felted wool and repurposed wool scraps

Batting: Warm and White

Thread: Mettler

Binding: Dense machine zig zag stitching

Crystalized Citrus: A Blogger’s Quilt Festival Entry

Posted on September 26, 2016September 26, 2016 by thenotsodramaticlifeadmin / Posted in Finished Quilts, Quilt Shows, Quilting Community / 6 Comments

Crystalized Citrus is my second entry into The Blogger’s Quilt Festival hosted by Amy’s Creative Side. I hope you will all set aside some time this week to look at all of the amazing inspiration provided by the festival entries- there is some amazing work on display!

Crystalized Citrus

I originally created this quilt for this year’s Hoffman Challenge which required the use of this digitally printed butterfly fabric. I enjoy transforming distinctively patterned fabric into something completely unexpected, so I was excited to transform the butterfly wings to the flesh of citrus fruit.

The center of each fruit is improvisationally pieced before being set into the surrounding “skin.” The entire fruit is then hand appliquéd to the background. I used matchstick quilting in a range of coordinating colors to ground the pieces on the white background.

For more about this quilt you can check out the original Crystalized Citrus post.

Columbus Skyline: A Blogger’s Quilt Festival Entry

Posted on September 26, 2016September 26, 2016 by thenotsodramaticlifeadmin / Posted in Finished Quilts, Quilt Shows, Quilting Community / 2 Comments

Every year The Blogger’s Quilt Festival hosted by Amy’s Creative Side brings tremendous inspiration to us all- I love seeing so much lovely work collected in one place! I am thrilled to submit “Columbus Skyline” as an entry into the appliqué category of the festival.

This project began when I was asked to create a “Row by Row” pattern for a local quilt shop. The theme for the year was “Home Sweet Home” so we embraced the unique skyline of Columbus, Ohio to develop a design specific to our area. (For more information on the design process, I hope you will take a look at the original Columbus Skyline post.)

Columbus Skyline

Hand stitched needle turn appliqué is used to create the city skyline. I selected bright colors to reflect the vibrant community within the city. This small quilt is finished with borders that provided a space to quilt in both the shop and city names. The quilting is done in thread to match each building so the design is reflected on the back of the quilt.

Columbus Skyline for the Row by Row Experience

Posted on July 13, 2016 by thenotsodramaticlifeadmin / Posted in Finished Quilts, Quilting, Quilting Community / 7 Comments

This year Dabble and Stitch, a fantastic local quilt shop in Columbus, Ohio asked me to design their row for the Row by Row Experience. It was their first time participating in this event, and it was my first time designing for it. I am really excited by the results, and I hope lots of people get to make up this fun block. During the Row by Row Experience the patterns are available for free in their “home” shop, but can only be distributed by picking them up in person. Kits for this row are available for $20. Later this year the pattern will go up for sale and can be sent to you if you can’t make it to the shop.

The theme for this year is “Home Sweet Home,” and we thought it would be great to create a row featuring the Columbus skyline. This view of the city is taken from a bridge in Bicentennial Park.

I was standing right next to this guy as I snapped the photos!

Using the photos I took, I designed and rendered the skyline using AutoCad and Photoshop.

The block is constructed using needle turn appliqué, but you can also do raw edge appliqué using this pattern since I included lines on the templates that show the finished sizes of each piece. This is what the row looks like finished and ready to incorporate with other rows.

For the shop, I made the row into a mini quilt by adding borders. The quilting changes from building to building, and for added fun, I quilted the shop name and city into the borders. I think this looks great as a mini, and I am hoping to make one up as a long pillow for a sofa or bed.

I love mixing up my quilting thread colors to match the fabrics on the front of the quilt. I went with a white fabric on the back to show off all of that quilting.

If you are traveling through Columbus this summer, I hope you stop in to pick up a pattern!

Quilt Stats

Title: Columbus Skyline

Size: Row itself finishes at 9″x36″ With borders the mini finishes at approximately 14.5″x41.5″

Techniques: Needle-turn Appliqué, Pieced borders

Quilting: Free motion longarm machine quilted with an A-1 Elite

Fabric: Assorted 100% Cotton Prints

Batting: Hobbs 80/20

Thread: Appliquéd using Gutermann Mara 100, Quilted with eight colors of 50wt cotton Aurifil

Binding: Straight grain binding assembled to match the borders of the mini, cut 2″ wide, machine stitched to the front, hand stitched to the back.